1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure of an open-close portion of a vehicle body such as a tailgate which opens and closes an opening of a vehicle body.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-316554, filed Oct. 31, 2005, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicles such as station wagons and vans have a flip-up tailgate. These vehicles are adapted to load and unload from its opening at the backside by lifting the tailgate (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2005-75210).
The tailgate is mounted on the top end of the opening by a hinge which is rotatable, and a stretchable stay is provided between the vehicle body and the tailgate. The stay is provided for making opening of the tailgate easier and for keeping the tailgate open. The stay usually includes a gas spring having a damper function, and biases the tailgate to open by the pressure of the filler gas.
The hinge has a constitution of a vehicle body hinge member and a tailgate hinge member being pivoted by a hinge pin. The vehicle body hinge member is provided in a groove extending along a joining portion of a roof panel and a side panel of the vehicle body. This is to enable the tailgate to open at a large degree without interference with the back end of the roof panel.
However, the hinge and the stay have to be mounted separately in these conventional open-close portion structures. This increases the number of components of the structure and makes the mounting operation more complex. That is, the tailgate hinge member is mounted on the upper end of the side of the tailgate, and a bracket for mounting the stay is mounted on the side of the tailgate, being away from the tailgate hinge member. This has been a cause of the increase of components and the complexity of the mounting operation.